Config Format

Config File

Shadowsocks accepts JSON format configs like this:

{
    "server":"my_server_ip",
    "server_port":8388,
    "local_port":1080,
    "password":"barfoo!",
    "method":"chacha20-ietf-poly1305"
}

Explanation of each field:

• server: your hostname or server IP (IPv4/IPv6).
• server_port: server port number.
• local_port: local port number.
• password: a password used to encrypt transfer.
• method: encryption method.

Encryption Method

The strongest option is an AEAD cipher. The recommended choice is "chacha20-ietf-poly1305" or "aes-256-gcm". For the latest AEAD-2022 ciphers, see SIP022. Stream ciphers are deprecated and do not provide integrity or authenticity.

URI and QR code

Shadowsocks for Android / iOS also accepts BASE64 encoded URI format configs:

ss://BASE64-ENCODED-STRING-WITHOUT-PADDING#TAG

Where the plain URI should be:

ss://method:password@hostname:port

Note that the above URI doesn't follow RFC3986. It means the password here should be plain text, not percent-encoded.

For example, we have a server at 192.168.100.1:8888 using chacha20-ietf-poly1305 encryption method and password test/!@#:. Then, with the plain URI ss://chacha20-ietf-poly1305:test/!@#:@192.168.100.1:8888, we can generate the BASE64 encoded URI:

> console.log( "ss://" + btoa("chacha20-ietf-poly1305:test/!@#:@192.168.100.1:8888") )
ss://Y2hhY2hhMjAtaWV0Zi1wb2x5MTMwNTp0ZXN0LyFAIzpAMTkyLjE2OC4xMDAuMTo4ODg4

To help organize and identify these URIs, you can append a tag after the BASE64 encoded string:

ss://Y2hhY2hhMjAtaWV0Zi1wb2x5MTMwNTp0ZXN0LyFAIzpAMTkyLjE2OC4xMDAuMTo4ODg4#example-server

This URI can also be encoded to QR code. Then, just scan it with your Android / iOS devices:

SIP002

There is also a new URI scheme proposed in SIP002. Any client or server which supports SIP003 plugin should use the SIP002 URI scheme instead.